DAYTONA BEACH — A jury verdict awarding $360,000 to the parents of a teen-ager killed in a shark attack when a sailboat capsized off Ormond Beach should be reversed because there is no evidence the accident was caused by a manufacturing defect in the catamaran, an attorney said Wednesday.

Daytona Beach lawyer Delia Doyle Rose asked the 5th District Court of Appeal to overturn the judgment against the North American Catamaran Racing Association Inc., the maker of the sailboat. She called the trial judgment Oct. 13, 1984, a sympathy verdict by jurors who felt sorry for the victim's family. A jury determined the catamaran manufacturer should pay Eugene and Joanna Wapniarski damages to compensate the Chicago couple for the pain and suffering caused by the loss of their daughter, Christine. The 19-year-old Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University student was attacked by a shark on Aug. 10, 1981, when she tried to swim to shore from an overturn sailboat. Three others who were on the boat made it to safety.

During the trial, the family's attorney, John Robinson, argued that the 17- foot sailboat had a manufacturing defect that caused it to leak. He also said the company that built the craft was negligent because it failed to equip the boat with proper flotation devices.

Daytona Beach attorney Frederick Jaeger Jr., representing the Wapniarskis at the appeal court, said the hull was too thin. He said the boat cracked under the weight of the four people.

Rose told a three-judge appellate panel the catamaran association should not have to pay damages because there is no evidence the 4-year-old boat had design defects.

Jurors agreed there was no proof of manufacturing defects but still found the association negligent, Rose said.

Rose said no laws required the boat to have flotation devices, yet the catamaran was still afloat when it was found by deputies in a sheriff's helicopter.

Attorneys for the catamaran association said Wapniarski might still be alive if she had stayed with the boat until rescuers arrived instead of attempting to swim to shore.

The four boaters were at fault because they sailed the catamaran in the Atlantic Ocean knowing it had a crack in one of the pontoons, Rose said. They patched the crack with duct tape and sailed without life preservers, she said. When the vessel started taking on water, the owner, Daniel Perrin, 26, Daytona Beach, pulled the drain plug on the pontoon in an attempt to release the water. Instead, he caused more water to pour into the pontoon, Rose said. ''The accident was caused by the owner of the boat, not the manufacturer,'' she told the appeal court.

Jurors last year found Perrin 20 percent negligent, assessing him $90,000 of the damages. The association was found to be 60 percent at fault, so its portion of the damages was $270,000. Jurors also decided that Christine was 20 percent negligent.

The catamaran overturned off the Granada Boulevard portion of Ormond Beach during an early morning storm. The four clung to the boat through the night and swam to the beach the next morning. Wapniarski was bitten by a shark as she tried to swim to shore.